It was a full-on battle. Very, very close with the dice deciding a lot of things. It was a really good game.

Some notes:

The battlefield was different than what I’m used to seeing. This was great. I’d just been complaining with some other folks on RPG.net about how WHFB battlefields always look pretty much exactly the same: Forests to the right and left, halfway between deployment zones with one to two hills along the back edge of each deployment zone (for bolt throwers, etc). Harry started dropping hills in the middle of the board for fear of the Warp-Lightning Cannon. I put forests in each deployment zone, hoping I could scout my Gutter Runners.

He lost his mages immediately. On his first turn, his scroll caddy miscast with double 1’s (kill the Mage). The other Mage died on my second turn: he’d been in a unit of Dragon Princes… which had lost a member to Storm Daemon, allowing the Warp-Lightning Cannon to snipe him. To say that this helped is to wildly understate.

The Throwing Stars on my Night Runners didn’t really do much for me, though it did have a strong psychological impact on my opponent. He seemed unreasonably concerned that he was going to get shot to pieces; I’m not sure why. Yes, most of my army had shooting, but so much of it was at a negligible range… and it’s not like it was two blocks of archers and two bolt throwers.

I did like the larger unit of Night Runners, though. They were more effective at screening, and tied things up pretty well. Shame they’ll be losing Skirmish in a few months.

The Gutter Runners did quite nicely. They locked down two flanks effectively and, on springing into combat, did me proud. They were unable to help with warmachines, though. I probably should try a Tunneling Team, after all.

I still like the Warlord with the Cautious Shield and the +5 Ward Save. He’s not a death machine, but he helps keep the unit around very effectively, and is about as hard to kill as I can manage.

The Assassin wasn’t able to do much of anything, but that’s because Harry moved his general halfway across the table. A flying general is handy to have. I’d probably be better off with two Warlock Engineers, though, if only to provide Dispel Dice and Scrolls.

Ratling Guns didn’t get to shoot once. I don’t expect them to, any more. They’re another target, though, and are a threat that must be dealt with, which protects my other units.

Likewise, the Giant. He didn’t get the chance to do anything except eat two rounds of shooting… which is pretty much what I thought he’d do. At 200 points, I probably should have higher expectations, I think. Maybe next time, I’ll try Ironguts or something.

The Jezzails kicked ass. They deployed behind the hills, in the back corner, which meant they were safe from enemy fire (so the only thing that would chase them off the table would be misfires). They still had a clear line of sight to the middle of the field and, if anything crossed over the hill (which happened several times), they were able to unload on it at short range.

The Warp-Lightning Cannon did quite well; threatening the heck out of most of his units. It paid for itself in frying the Mage. At one point, it shot down the flank of the unit of Dragon Princes that contained the BSB. At S10. I rolled a 1 to wound the BSB, but incinerated the rest of the unit. That was pretty close, there.

The MVPs for the game, I think, were the Globadiers. Small enough that he didn’t want to waste anything on them, those two 20 point units were able to kill hundreds of points of Dragon Princes, as well as opening the door to put down to enemy characters. They were fantastic.

At the end of the game, he had:

General (fleeing)

BSB

One full unit of Archers

2 Bolt Throwers

I had:

Nearly full block of Clanrats (with General)

Nearly full block of Slaves

Nearly full heap of Jezzails

Warp-Lightning Cannon

Half a unit of Gutter Runners

1 Globadier

One quarter was contested, one empty, two mine. I’d captured a banner, as well. Ultimately, I won by over 800 points, but it could have very easily been a defeat had his Mages not been fried.